Adhar Project Services

As a team Adhar Project are committed to supporting people with their mental health difficulties, by helping them to understand their individual problems and be able to offer support where needed.

Our Mission

Adhar Project empowers people to manage their own mental health difficulties. We aim to achieve this by addressing all factors that are related to the issue and delivering these services in a culturally relevant and personalised way.

Our Work in 2020

COVID-19

2020 has been a year that has effected everyone accross the country, and has therefore had a massive impact on peoples mental health. Although we were unable to support people in person due to lockdown, Adhar continued to support people on a daily basis over online services, whilst still providing emotional support and counselling sessions to our clients, old and new.

Zoom sessions, such as the 'Mindfulness' sessions were hosted to help support those with mental health issues and find ways to help manage and calm their mind. We understood that in these times, it was more important than ever for people to know that someone was there to help support them.

Mental Health Awareness Week 2020

Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, for Mental Health Awareness Week 2020, Adhar took to social media to spread awareness of the ongoing issues that had got gotten far worse over lockdown. To help support people, multiple zoom sessions were held every week, hosting sessions such as meditation, breathing techniques, yoga sessions and more.

Adhar's Services

Our vision for the furure is to build a society where all those who are experiencing mental health difficulties live happy, healthy and fulfilled lives.

Some of the services provided below are how Adhar aim to do this.

• Therapeutic support using arts, social and cultural activities delivered as individidual support and group sessions;

• Advice, information and signposting to additional services;

• Advocating on behalf of individuals and communities on mental health issues, ensuring they understand their rights;

• Educating society on mental health issues, challenging stigma and encouraging people to seek early intervention.

Employment, Health and Wellbeing Project

This project is in collaboration with Business2Business's "Brighter Futures" project, with the aim of helping our clients overcome any obstacles in their life through a combination of coaching, mentoring, volunteering and training. We aim to help all participants be able to improve aspects of their lives by helping them get into education or employment, which will in turn improve their happiness and financial security.

If you have any interest in this project, check out our contact page or visit Business2Business website to enrol now.

Domestic Abuse Programme

We have new programmes and initatives that are aimed to address issues that are ongoing and new. For example, we have recently started a Domestic Abuse Programme, aimed to help support those who are involved in abusive relationships and help them begin to recover from these problems. This programme began during the COVID-19 Lockdown, due to the increase in the amount of reports of domestic abuse in households accross the UK.

Adhar Advocacy Project

The Advocacy Project aims to provide members with personal, client led outcomes that will help benefit them personally. For example, Adhar will;

• Support people who are transitioning towards increased self-management and more independent living, especially those whose recovery may be threatened by additional, external stress of any kind.

• Offer early intervention methods, with the aim of preventing external stresses to continue or worsen the clients mental health.

Adhar's support team will help you understand your own problems and help you manage them, by listening closely to what you have to say, respecting any decisions that you choose to make and exploring all potential options that are available to you. We will create an agreed list of actions and help you complete these successfully, whilst keeping you informed of any developments.

An advocate from our support team can;

• Listen to your views and concerns;

• Help you expore all options and rights that are available to you, at a pace that makes you most comfortable;

• Provide information to help you make informed decisions;

• Help you contact relevent people or organisations, or do this on your behalf;

• Accompany you and support you on meetings and appointments;

• Help you raise your concerns about your care or experiences;

• Support you to deal with complex issues;

• Support and encourage you to communicate your views and be confident enough to speak up for yourself;

• Ensuring you feel safe and comfortable at all times, such as in situations where you may feel threatened or powerless;

• Guiding you to seek additional help and support, that may help improve your health, wellbeing or independence.

If you wish to access Adhar's Advocacy Project, you need to:

• Have a diagnoses of enduring mental health issues

• Be a member of the Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) community, between the ages of 18-65 and a resident of Leicester of immediate vicinity;

• Not currently receiving, or on the waiting list for, advocacy from another organisations;

• Have a specific issue that is affecting your life, that you feel needs help and support;

• Be referred to Adhar, which can be done by yourself or another organisation, with your persmission.

Recovery Project

Adhar recognises that people who are struggling with their mental health problems have experienced many difficulities on their journey to recovery. This project therefore emphasises the process of learning, engaging, taking action and engaging with others. It is about having positive thinking and actions, and developing participants sense of self-value and empowerment.

Some of the activities that are offered in this project are 1-2-1 sessions, training workshops and community visits. When the client has completed the programme, they will be discharged and referred to the 'Peer Support Network', which will provide self-help for continued support during their recovery.

The Recorvery Project is broken down into four sub-sections;

• Understanding your mental health
  Adhar empowers our clients to learn more about their own mental health problems, by exploring their thoughts and feelings, and addressing some of the potential side effects of medication. We aim to give clients a sense of optimism and self-worth.

• Taking care of you
  The main focus of this project is to help improve each clients self-care, by encouraging them to take part in new things, looking into previous interests and doing meaningful activities. We have also developed workshops to aid clients with managing their wellbeing, to help them maintain a healthy lifestyle.

• Taking positive action
  We help our clients to identify their goals in life and take positive action to achieve them, by completing small tasks to make it more achievable from action plans that are regularly reviewed.

• Meaningful contacts
  To help the clients wellbeing, we aid them to build and maintain meaningful relationships with others, helping them to build their peer support network.

The service can be accessed through six steps;

1. Referral: The referral might come from a social worker, GP, psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse, signposting from another organisation or by self-referrel.

2. Intake Assessment: This will allow the client to explore and communicate their problems and see if this project is right for them, if not othe options will be explored.

3. Attending Training: This will have a strong focus on the client learning and engaging with the project and taking positive action to help themself.

4. Monitoring: We will monitor our clients to check their improvement, such as their self-confidence, concentration, positive thinking, management of their symptoms, their engagement and how they access local community services.

5. Review: Once the project is complete, we work closely with the client to appraise all improvements made and explore any futher, unmet needs that they may have, and creating a recovery plan to address these.

6. Exit: We support the client in developing their 'Peer Support Network' to help benefit them going forward, or see whether further support is needed for the client from Adhar's sercices.

Support Groups

Adhar's are lead by one of our counsellours, and allow clients to build friendships, develop their skills and gain emotional support through a group of peers who will be understanding of everyones own issues. The support groups are welcome to all English, Gujarati and Hindi speakers who are over the age of 18.

To take part in Adhar's support groups, referrals can be taken by;

• Social worker

• Support worker

• self-referral

• GP

• Consultant psychiatrist

• Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPN)

• Occupational Therapist (OT)

• Care Management Officers (CMO)

If you require additional 1-2-1 support, please contact us on 0116 2200070 or email our support team;

ushma.j@adharproject.org or chhaya.c@adharproject.org